How to Encourage Good Reading Habits at Home

Not a school year or parent-teacher conference goes by without parents asking me how they can encourage their children to read at home. I love providing parents with easy to implement reading tips and activities that will keep their child's nose buried inside a book!

At home reading of any kind can provide students with organic reading experiences while helping to strengthening young readers' skills like decoding new words, using context clues, and implementing reading strategies to help boost comprehension. Besides strengthen their skills as a reader, at home reading can help instill a love of reading for pleasure, too.

Encouraging students to read at home is not at all the same as encouraging them to read in the classroom is. Encouraging reluctant readers to read at home is even harder. These easy to implement and screen-free reading tips, tricks, and activities will help your students (and children) read at home and look forward to it, too!

These ideas are perfect for:

• at home and distance learning
• summer reading 
• enrichment reading activities
• extra practice for students of all levels
• or any time for any reason!

Below is my go-to, tried, and tested at home reading activities that I always share with parents to get kids reading at home...and loving it! All you need to implement these reading at home ideas is a good book a few common household items. Read more about each idea below and grab a FREE printable list of these activities HERE.

Create an At-Home Reading Nook

At school, students have special spots to read. It is highly motivating and students love to get to their spot and dive into a book. By creating a spot at home, too, students can "get away" in a place all their own to read. Ideas to put in their special at home reading nooks include, pillows, blankets, a book box, bookmark, and flashlight for nighttime reading!

Set Specific Family Time to Read

Modeling reading at home is so important! Carve out time every day for family reading time. This can be a short amount of time (15-20 minutes) where everyone in the family stops what they are doing and reads. It can be anything from a book to a magazine. When children see the important people in their lives reading, they will want to read even more!

Set a Goal and Track It

Encourage reading at home by setting simple goals! Simply challenge students to read a certain amount of books and track what they read. Writing about the book is not necessary. Use the FREE bookshelf book tracker below to encourage reading at home. Just simply color in one of the books on the bookshelf to keep track of the books that they are reading.  When kids fill up the bookshelf with books that they have read, reward them! Keep the rewards simple and fun like having a little extra time to play outside.

Find a Character They Love

When children connect with characters that they love, especially characters in book series, they will want to read an entire series! Encourage children to try different books until they find characters that they connect with and love! Those characters will become their best friends and they will devour the books in the series. Some series and books that I always recommend to parents include:

• any book in the Doll People Series 
• any book by Andrew Clements
• Ramona Quimby series
• Chasing Vermeer series
• Harry Potter series
• Narnia series
• See some of my other favorite books to recommend HERE.

Use Student Interests and Allow them to Read Anything

Make a day of heading to the book store and library and spend some time finding books about the child's specific interests. This can include sports, science, any hobby or craft, funny books, going on vacations, anything that will hold their interest and keep them reading! Do not hold students to just reading chapter books. They can read nonfiction books and magazines, how-to books, cooking books, picture books, anything that is appropriate for their age, and keeps them reading is just what they need.

Get it in the Mail

My own children always loved getting books and magazine subscriptions in the mail! The day that a Highlights, National Geographic, Brainspace, or Sports Illustrated Kids magazine arrived was always so exciting for them. There are so many magazines that kids can get a subscription for that will keep them reading and anticipating the latest issue. Magazine subscriptions make a great holiday or birthday gift from family members, too!

Read with a Purpose

Model with kids how reading is not just for pleasure, but for purpose, too. If you are looking up a recipe, how to fix something, or even just something that you are curious about, share that information with the kids. The next time that they have a question, help them look up how to find the answer in a book or online. Kids love to solve their own problems, so encourage them to read to solve them!


The next time a parent asks you how they can help encourage reading at home, share these ideas and give them this FREE print out of at-home reading tips. Download the simple reading goal page below to provide parents with even more resources to encourage reading at home, or use them in your classroom with your students. If you get asked about writing at home, grab this FREE printable to share with parents.

Looking for digital resources for reading practice anywhere? Click HERE.

Love these ideas? Pin for later!

*affiliate links: “Think Grow Giggle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.” (source: Section 5)